Nope, stock gears everywhere.
Soldering skills are fine. No cold joints. The buds car it's his solder job but the same concept.
The ESC has 2 protection modes, overheat and overcurrent. I am ruling out overheat cuz its really cold and overcurrent is left to see.

Basically anything Novak. My Novak Cyclone can handle up to 10 cells, but would need an LVC for a LiPo. It's a tank of an ESC though as long as you don't need reverse. A Futaba MC210CB is what I have running in the other chassis I take care of, and it makes the standard Tamiya Silver Can fly (and has reverse) But both of those are older than LiPo, so you'll need an LVC.

Here we go, another member of the ”partners in...” ! It never fails. They follow folks on here, harrassing them forever.... Keep it up guys.... Bravo...
Moving on, I run my mini with an old Lrp v7.1 no limit esc , and I never worry about overloading the esc. I just time my runs so the lipo won't get down too far, and my motor won't fry... I get well over six minutes solid runtime, and put back about 1200mah in the tp3200 lipo pack to recharge it...... Just helping the newbies not the partners....

I used to race a lot of oval at the very end of the brushed days. I still have my Turbo30 that I used to break in stock motors back in the 27 wind Epic days. I remember with the super soft Orion F brush would pull 8.0-10+ amps at 1 volt. After breaking in the six new Johnson motors I had lying around, the very best one is 1.3 amps at 1v.

Why does this little motor need a big amp speed control?

My current favorite is this one - it's small, light, dependable, and $20.

That micro esc use to cost $149.99, while my lrp v7.1 use to go for $120... Now brushed no limit esc's are also reasonably cheap ($40-$60), but they can run any motor out there, not just mini. I go for big amp ratings for peace of mind, and not having to buy an esc twice if I need to put that esc in another car... I still own many cars with mod brushed motors in them.
The esc is an investment , and the more it can do, the better... If it also can run brushless, then go for it : tekins, Novak gtb/kinetic, etc...,that are a bargain.....just sayin...

I have just begun testing the new shorter front linkage, with the MO6 hinge pins and cf rear shock tower. We are also experimenting with the Ride inch ups as a control tyre for future events.
With this combination I have found you need to run softer oil and softer springs. On a short tight track, I found I had issues with understeer unless I got off the throttle, which made my car slower.I am looking at trying some other things to see if I can rectify this.
So far I have shortened the steering link, so it has no spacer, softened the front oil to 30 weight and red trf short spring, rear same oil but fluro blue spring. I am running 6mm axle hubs, but might try thinner up front. I am running two degree rear hubs, which I will change to 1 degree to see if it improves the steering. Ride height is low with the front lower than the rear. I am also using the JCW coupe body. I did increase the length of the shocks so the car would sit properly.
As I say a work in progress.
Any advice will be taken on board for possible testing. I have the new gold edition bottom toe in block, so you can run 2.5 degrees rear toe.